...The universal impact of art forms transcends the limitations imposed by language, custom, 


or belief... 

...The Greeks held that through the eyes and ears it was possible to nourish the soul...

...Pythagoras taught that certain forms of illness could be treated by presenting to the attention of 


the patient figures of the symmetrical geometric solids... 

...He is said to have received this doctrine from the priests of Egypt...

...As the body of man is nourished by food, the internal psychic self is sustained 


by the contemplation of beauty...

...Among the secret sciences of antiquity the laws regulating harmonic proportions in form, color, 


sound, and motion, were carefully examined and considered...

...Rejoicing in the likeness of itself, which it beholds in beauty and order, the soul rushes forth 


to embrace that which substantiates its own disposition... 

...By this motion of his interior principle, man is strengthened and inspired to restore 


the harmony of his being...

...When man becomes beautiful internally, and discovers himself to be a creature of beauty 


possessing an internal insight greater than his external perceptions, he is converted to reality 


by the yearnings and longings of his own heart...

...His mind responds to the instruction of the wise, but his soul to the revelation of the eternal...

- Manly Palmer Hall -

Excerpted from "THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGIOUS RITUAL" 

©1994 by the Philosophical Research Society